In 1990, the Vaccine Adverse Event
Report System (VAERS) was created by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Medical professionals are required to
report and adverse events to the system and concerned parents can also report
via fax, mail, or online. The system’s purpose is to be a “post-marketing
safety surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events
(possible side effects) that occur after the administration of vaccines
licensed for use in the United States,” (according to the VAERS itself).
Anti-vaccine proponents use data
from the VAERS database to claim that there is scientific evidence for the
risks they claim. 10-15% of adverse events reported are for "serious
adverse events involving life-threatening conditions, hospitalization,
permanent disability, or death, which may or may not have been caused by a
vaccine." However, according to skepticalraptor.com, “The data is
considered to be ‘passive’ because the individual reports can be made online,
by fax or by mail–real causal events may be underreported and hyped, imaginary
issues with no causality, can be over-reported. However, without medical
investigations of causality between the vaccination and the claimed adverse
events that are reported to the VAERS database, the data have no real value.”
Therefore, the data cannot prove causality.
Not only is the data passive, the
reporting system is particularly flawed. Dr. Laidler reported,
“The chief problem with the VAERS
data is that reports can be entered by anyone and are not routinely verified.
To demonstrate this, a few years ago I entered a report that an influenza
vaccine had turned me into The Hulk. The report was accepted and entered into
the database.”
Dr. Laider literally told the VAERS
that the vaccine turned him into the Hulk and they had to report it. Since this
adverse event is rather unusual, the VAERS called Laidler to ask for details.
After explaining it, Laidler gave permission for the report to be removed from
the database. If he had refused permission, the VAERS would have been obligated
to keep the bogus report.
Anti-vaxxers have claimed Dr.
Laidler’s experiment a hoax and maintain that the VAERS collects accurate data.
In response, a few people have gone ahead and tried similar things. Such as
this man in the UK,
“VAERS has a helpful popup which
tells you exactly what it needs to know – which are the most important pieces
of data it needs. However, the fact that I live in the UK was not deemed of
importance. Neither was the fact that I told VAERS that my daughter had been
turned into Wonder Woman. The only piece of contact data I submitted was my
email address and I wasn’t even asked for that. I submitted it voluntarily...
The Javascript routine caught the
fact that I tried to submit an adverse event *before* the fictional date of my
daughter’s birth but it failed to catch that I stated the vaccine was
administered at 18months and that the date for vaccination I provided was only
6 months after the ‘birth’ date.”
So if this man in the UK can find
that many flaws in our system and record himself doing it, what’s to keep the
data truthful? The answer: nothing. People using data from the VAERS must take
the majority of the information with a grain of salt or find a completely
different source. Well, then what’s the point of having the VAERS at all?
The VAERS is a tool that was
created for two reasons. First, it appeases the anti-vaccination crowd, and
second, the system can be used for observing data to form a hypothesis about
the effects of vaccines. In addition, the VAERS has the power to report its
findings to the CDC. The CDC can then use that information to more effectively
shape policies. The recent issues with the rotavirus vaccine have proven where
the real importance of the VAERS lies.
The rotavirus vaccine is an oral
vaccine given to children under 5. Two main types of this vaccine are given
Rotarix and RotaTeq. The difference between these two is mainly the packaging.
As you can see, Rotarix looks much
more like a syringe that a nurse would inject. In 33 of 39 cases reported to
the VAERS, the nurses did mistake the oral vaccine for a shot. Luckily, the
children were not hurt by this mistake, but the vaccine does nothing when
injected this way. The VAERS reported the delivery errors to the CDC which now
reminds health professionals about proper delivery of the vaccines. Therein
lies the purpose people should focus on, not the easily skewed data.
Sources:
http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/reports-vaccine-related-effects/
http://antiantivax.flurf.net/#VAERS
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2006/03/14/on-using-vaers/
http://vaccines.procon.org/
http://vaers.hhs.gov/index
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